Planting with frost in the forecast

I have two small lilacs (1 gal) that I was going to plant today. But frost is in the forecast for the next two nights. Can I still plant them today, or should I wait till next weekend?

If it's just frost and not a hard freeze, you could plant them and cover them. (That would give the nice little spiders a warm place to hide under!)
Hee-hee-hee!

Guy S.

Cover them with a plastic garbage bag, perhaps? The dark bags would keep heat in, but the white ones would let sun through.

I use 5gal paint buckets turned upside down. Always works fine for me.

Buckets, rose cones, floating row cover, a bedsheet, a garbage bag, whatever. Just remember to take it off in the morning, especially if you use plastic, before the sun cooks them.

Guy S.

A frost or a hard freeze wont hurt them. Plant them now, but mulch around the base of the plant to prevent frost heaving. Repeat freezing and thawing of the ground can cause the plant to be pushed up out of the soil. If this occurs, simply tamp the soil back down with your foot.

May I chime in with rcn48 on this one. Don't worry about covering them. UNLESS you have had them indoors or a greenhouse. Lilacs can take the frost and freeze with no problem. In fact in the early spring, I get them bare root, pot them up, and they go thru some frosts early on with no problem. Most lilacs are hardy to Z2-3. Do mulch them as rcn48 suggested. They will be fine without the covering.

I'm in with the last two, also. If this plant has had normal exposure to weather, it is firmly hardened off, has set good buds, and is fully ready for winter. As long as mulch is applied to the root zone to moderate freeze/thaw to some extent, then it should be fine.

If for some reason it is full of succulent, young, new growth, then your job is harder. Protect it from hard frost, sure, but otherwise don't baby it and hope that it hardens off before really bad weather.

Scott

I disagree. I'm guessing that they are container-grown nursery plants that are still actively photosynthesizing, and that she might like to give them a few "Indian summer" weeks with foliage to help them root in better before winter. If that's the case, I would keep the leaves from freezing.

Guy S.

The two lilac bushes have been in containers sitting out on my patio table for 3-4 months now, in heat and in cold. They've gone through nights of 40 degree weather, but since they're still in containers I took them in last night. They've been growing very nicely all summer at a slow but steady pace. They do show opening buds, though, and I would have like to have seen these leaf out before I put them in the ground. Once I put them in the ground, I figure all top growth will stop as the plants establish themselves in the soil.

So I'll plant them next weekend, when the low temps will be in the 40s and the high temps in the 60s.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I just got one of my little lilac bushes into the ground when I come inside and find out that there's a frost warning with temps down to 35. It was only supposed to get down to 41.

I put a tomato cage over the lilac, covered that with a white garbage bag, and raked up some new fallen leaves against the whole thing, up against the stems and over the earth around the bush.

Think that will do it?

The other lilac I simply took indoors for the night.

It'll survive either way. But as long as you protect it from these first few freezes I think it will establish better before winter. The flip side is that you don't want to protect it too long into fall, because it does need to adjust as your temps crash more frequently and severely for the winter season. And the other caution is to make sure it doesn't overheat under that plastic once the morning sun comes up. Finally, a good, deep mulch layer applied now will postpone and moderate soil freezing, also helping root establishment.

Look for spiders keeping warm under the plastic too!
Hee-hee-hee!
;-)

Guy S.

And what lilac did you get by the way?

Lilacs are my favorite shrubs for scentimental reasons. I know some people will say, what, are you crazy, but I grew up near Highland Park in Rochester NY, a loving aunt adored them, and I now have over 100 cultivars. A new favorite of mine is Lilac Sunday.

For me the bloom is all worth it.

As it turned out, the plastic blew off during the night. I found it hugging my fence. So any spiders hiding under it are probably DEAD.

The lilac (an Ellen Willmott) survived quite handily. Even my zucchini survived, although the leaves look a little brittle.

The one I have yet to plant (hopefully today, but I don't know) is a Krasavitsa Muscvy (or however it's spelled). I also have a James McFarlane and an Adelaide Dunbar in the ground. I planted them during summer's heat, though, and they didn't like it much.

When I was a girl, we had a whole row of lilac trees under my window, and the scent would waft up into my room. Can't do that now, though. My bedroom window looks out over the driveway.

I did have a Syringa Vulgaris bare root, but it died. I'm going to get a replacement sent to me next spring. I'd have a ton of lilacs if I could, but I don't have the space. If I tear out the junipers in front, I might put a lilac there instead. Maybe a dwarf, like Miss Kim.

Krasavitska Moscovy , and Miss Ellen Willmott are both beautiful double whites. KV is a really pretty pink in bud. KV is my daughters favorite. Adelaide Dunbar if I recall is a lovely double dark purple. You should have some pretty bouquets out of those!

A lot of people plant Miss Kim thinking it's a true mini, but I have some older ones that are about 9' tall by 7' wide. Josee is a nice one that only gets about 5 X 5. Mine rebloom about 4 times per year, with aggressive pruning.

The new Bailey Nursery intros like Tinkerbelle, Fairy Dust, Sugar Plum Fairy etc., are proving to be quite small. They are meyeri and microphylla hybrids, so are extremely floriferous, and very fragrant, along with some rebloom.

In back, I want a line of taller lilacs to serve as a privacy fence. One week after I moved into this house, they built a duplex about eight feet the other side of my fence. So I wanted something that would be at least 8-10 feet tall, preferably taller.

But in front I might want something smaller. It doesn't have to be tiny, although I have seen tiny lilac bushes that aren't even as tall as I am.

The Krasavitsa is now in the ground. For the next ten days the night temperatures will only be in the 40s, so it should be okay. It was well and truly root bound. I teased the roots apart as much as I could, and I dug a big hole so it would have some semi-loose soil to burrow into.

I doubt if any of these will bloom next year, but as long as they're healthy, I don't care.